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XL. On the Improvement of the Wild Carrot. By M. Vilmorin, 

 F.M.H.S. 



Read March 3, 1840. 



The greatest part of our kitchen garden plants, and especially 

 those which have been brought to the highest state of perfection, 

 and rendered the most useful, are evidently deviations from wild 

 kinds, modified by the skill and labour of man. , This may be 

 proved by comparing together in the two different conditions, those 

 with which we are acquainted in their wild states, the cabbage, the 

 carrot, the turnip, &c. 



This fact, considered either generally or in detail, presents seve- 

 ral subjects for study of great interest. On the one hand, it is con- 

 nected with one of the most important problems of natural philoso- 

 phy, that of the laws which govern the species and its variations ; 

 on the other hand, it affects Botany properly so called, and Physio- 

 logy ; the former as regards the determination of the species to 

 which the numerous cultivated varieties belong, the second as re- 

 gards the changes effected in the proportions and the develope- 

 ment of the organs orparts of a plant. But the most interesting 

 perhaps, and at the same time the most useful, point of view under 

 which these modifications can be considered, is that of the means by 

 which they have been effected. 



It is a nearly new enquiry with us. The habit of seeing our ali- 

 mentary plants under their present forms, their utility, even the 

 common and daily use of them, have caused them to be considered 

 in general, as entirely natural productions, with nothing particular 

 in their origin ; neither has the curiosity of the cultivator been ex- 

 cited c Botanists, on their side, have long scorned to give their at- 



